Video conferencing systems are typically designed for use with one particular type of video input device, such as an NTSC camera (“NTSC” means the North American and Japanese analog video standard), a PAL camera (“PAL” means the European analog video standard), a digital camera, or a high speed serial interface camera (e.g., a FireWire or Universal Serial Bus (USB) camera). Such systems are also typically designed for use with one particular output device, such as an NTSC or PAL video monitor, a television set, a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) screen, or a computer monitor.
Systems having an interface for video conferencing systems that allow the users or manufacturers of such systems to intermingle video input and output devices as they choose, or as a particular video conferencing application dictates, rather than being required are not known. That is, existing systems are believed to require a particular video input device and a particular output device dictated by the video signal formal for the selected video conferencing system.